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by James Tweedie
JOHN KERRY reaffirmed US support for South Korea yesterday, threatening Pyongyang with further sanctions during a trip to Seoul.
The US Secretary of State said the military alliance between the Washington and Seoul “is absolutely stronger than ever.”
Speaking alongside South Korean counterpart Yun Byung Se at a press conference, he said there was “not an inch, not a centimetre, not a microscope [sic]” between the two countries’ approach to northern “provocations.”
Mr Kerry said that North Korea was the “biggest security concern” facing its southern ally, adding that the two countries were “working together with the same direction and the same goal.”
The US military has maintained a continuous presence in South Korea since the end of World War II, with 28,500 personnel now stationed there.
US and South Korean forces regularly conduct joint military exercises on islands off North Korea’s coast, which Pyongyang regards as deliberate provocations.
Mr Kerry repeated claims of cyber-attacks by the North against US film company Sony Pictures and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un having his defence minister executed with an anti-aircraft gun.
The Secretary of State described the report from South Korea’s spy agency as the latest in a series of “grotesque, grisly, horrendous public displays of executions on a whim and fancy.”
Mr Kerry’s visit came after North Korea’s May 9 announcement that it had successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
Mr Kerry said the launch was provocative and in violation of UN security council resolutions.
He indicated further sanctions against the North, saying: “They have grown the threat of their programme and have acted with a kind of reckless abandon.”
He added that the US and China were looking at methods for “boosting sanctions and other things” to change North Korean behaviour.
Later, in a speech at Korea University, Mr Kerry said that the low rate of internet use in North Korea was part of a deliberate policy of oppression, claiming that web access is a human right.
He made no reference to Seoul’s banning last December of the pro-reunification Unified Progressive Party, which had members in parliament.
